


Apples to Pumpkins

by Skyler10



Series: Family Fic [16]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Autumn, Baby Fic, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Kid Fic, Picnics, Pumpkins, apple picking, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 02:18:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12423027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: Tentoo and Rose take their toddler apple picking at the best farm in the galaxy, but Piper is a bit too young to appreciate the experience.





	Apples to Pumpkins

**Author's Note:**

> For DRP fall fic fest: Fall picnic and picking apples

Sometimes trying to compare other planets to Earth was like comparing apples to oranges… no, something even more different. Pumpkins, perhaps. But parenting was surprisingly consistent across the galaxy. Rose and the Doctor were still learning, in many respects, when it came to raising their two-year-old. So when the Doctor found a travel channel on the TARDIS’s telly with an autumn episode about an alien apple farm, he brought it up to Rose and she agreed with excitement, already envisioning the picture-perfect family moments there.

They packed up for an idyllic weekend away and landed on the right farm in the right kingdom on the right alien planet on the exact weekend they had the TARDIS book for them. Rose coaxed Piper’s dark blonde hair into two pigtails. And yes, perhaps they were a bit lopsided, but that only made them all the cuter. The last step was to button up the tiny navy and pink plaid flannel, making her daughter the most adorable thing she had ever seen, if she did say so herself.

“Button!” Piper echoed. Rose tapped the girl’s tiny nose.

“Yes, sweetheart, all buttoned.” She picked up Piper and headed for the console room, where the Doctor was figuring out directions from the forest where they parked the TARDIS to the farmhouse where they would check in and pick up their designated basket.

By the time they made it to the console room, however, Piper had unbuttoned her shirt again with delight. Rose sighed and re-buttoned it, but this time, she got out her sonic pen and ran it over the buttons. Rose smiled in triumph as Piper attempted to unbutton her shirt again and was met with resistance.

“Hadn’t thought of that setting. I’m impressed,” the Doctor praised with a kiss to Rose’s cheek. Piper scowled up at them.

“Oh, don’t pout,” Rose cooed at her, making an exaggerated pouty face. “You’ll be glad to have your shirt on properly when we get out of doors. We’re going to pick some apples! You love apples.” She ramped up her excitement to improve Piper’s mood. Combined with some tickling from the Doctor, it worked for the time being, and they left the TARDIS with a happy toddler.

* * *

 

Two hours later, Piper had had enough of wandering alongside her stroller as her parents stopped to pick apples. They tried to get her interested, and she was fascinated by throwing the smaller apples for a bit. But by lunchtime, she had had enough. Endless rows of trees were fun for a while, but they got old quickly.

“Time for home?” Piper asked, tugging on her dad’s trousers. He bent down to her level.

“Not quite yet, princess. We’re going to the end of this row, then we’ll turn around and go back to the farmhouse.” He pointed to the end of the row of trees in one direction, then back to the direction from which they came. He stood and gestured for her to follow.

To him, of course, it didn’t seem all that far. He and Rose had been flirting like newlyweds and enjoying the beautiful weather. All around them, happy families played and walked and talked together.

To Piper, however, the distance back to the farmhouse was unfathomable. The crunching of the leaves and the tallness of the trees and so many big kids stomping around and running and jumping had her on edge. She had worked up quite the appetite from her morning snack, but her mummy and daddy wouldn’t let her eat the apples they were picking because they had to pay by the weight of how much they picked. But she _wanted_ an apple. Right. Now. Preferably in slices she could pick up and eat herself.

She felt sorry for herself, and her lower lip trembled. She shuffled her pink converses in the dirt, getting her mummy’s attention. Rose told the Doctor to go on ahead while she stopped with Piper again and knelt down in front of her.

“Are you tired, love? Want to get in your stroller?”

Piper eyed the stroller. Babies rode in strollers. It was a sign of defeat. No. She would walk. She could do this. The weariness of it all sunk her heart. She was on the verge of tears, about to give in to the sweet respite of the stroller when a large apple fell from above and landed right next to her with a WHAM.

The branches above her rustled, but Piper was too scared to pay them any mind. She stood frozen in shock for a moment as her mum yelled at some boys climbing the tree that they could hurt someone and didn’t they see there was a small child around? Her mum’s eyes were wide as her own. Hearing her shout, even though Piper knew it wasn’t directed at her, was the needed shove from terrified shock into full-on sobbing. She threw herself at her mummy’s legs and held on for dear life.

“Oh, my baby.” Rose lifted Piper in her arms and held her close, shushing and swaying lightly. “Those big boys didn’t hurt you. You’re alright. Mummy’s got you.”

The Doctor rushed back to their side, hearing her cries from meters away. “What happened?”

“Those boys were playing in the trees and knocked an apple off next to her. They didn’t hurt her, but they could have!” she raged with her protective motherly instincts in full throttle. “I wish I knew who their parents were! I’d like to tell _them_ something about watching out for--”

“Rose! Rose,” the Doctor interrupted her and nodded to Piper, who was sobbing even harder and clutching her mummy’s shirt. “Not helping.”

“Right.” She inhaled and exhaled slowly, calming herself so she could calm her child. She rubbed her hand in soothing circles over Piper’s back. “Doctor, if it would have hit her…”

“I know, love.” He embraced his little family and kissed Rose’s temple, then Piper’s forehead. “Alright, princess?”

Piper sniffled and nodded. He dug a handkerchief out of his dimensionally transcendent pocket and wiped away her tears and runny nose.

“I’d say it’s time for a picnic lunch back at the farmhouse, wouldn’t you two?” he offered.

Piper nodded again but still clung to Rose, who sighed and agreed.

* * *

 

The two-year-old had calmed by the time they made it back, the Doctor wheeling the basket of apples in the stroller since Piper insisted on being carried by Rose the entire distance. Rose really didn’t mind, as she wanted to hold her baby girl close after such a fright, but two-year-olds were heavy. All three of them were hungry by now, so they came trudging up to the farmhouse looking worse for the wear.

The farmer’s son, a strapping lad with a jolly laugh, ginger fur, and a lion-like tail, came out to greet them.

“Did ya not find any apples?” he teased. “Why the long faces?”

“Oh, plenty, thanks.” Rose pasted on her grateful smile.

“Nice method of transport you got there.” The alien young man laughed and gestured to the stroller with the basket of apples. “I’ll take these and help you check out.”

“That’d be lovely, thanks,” the Doctor answered. “And we’ve registered for a picnic as well.”

The two men went inside to get everything straightened out, leaving Rose with the now-empty stroller and a Piper who was getting bored with being comforted. 

She squirmed and wriggled in Rose’s arms. When she was younger, it wasn’t so much of an issue as she was small enough to contain. But in a toddler body, her part-Gallifreyan part-Tyler curiosity was harder to control.

“Down please down!” Piper demanded.

“Alright,” Rose relented, arms tired enough to make this sound like a good idea. “But stay right here. No running off.”

Naturally, Piper escaped as soon as Rose set her down, thwarting Rose’s attempt to grab her tiny, sweaty hand. Rose chased her across the yard to a pile of pumpkins, where Piper collided with the largest one and fell onto her bum.

She looked back to her mother, trying to decide whether to cry again.

“Yay!” Rose quickly distracted her. “You’ve found the pumpkins!”

“Pumpkins hurt! Ouch!” Piper rubbed her chest where she had hit the pumpkin with full force.

“You’ve just got to go slower next time and wait for Mummy.” But Piper was already more interested in exploring the pumpkin pile than listening, so Rose captured her daughter’s little hands and sat on her knees in front of her, blocking her vision from the pumpkins for a second. “Piper, look at me. What did I tell you before you ran away?”

“Down!”

“No, that’s what you said,” Rose corrected. “What did I tell you?”

“Ok!”

“Yes, I said it was alright and I would put you down but what?”

Piper pulled out her favorite weapon against discipline: her pouty lip and big, dark eyes. “No running.”

“Yes, exactly. And what did you do?”

“Piper runs away.” The little girl hung her head for emphasis.

“Yes, you disobeyed me and you could have gotten very hurt.”

“Ouch,” Piper repeated, rubbing at her chest again.

“Yes, more hurt than that even.” Rose was spared from coming up with a fitting punishment that also wouldn’t have Piper in a second sobbing fit as the Doctor called to them. She scooped up her daughter and carried her back to the stroller. “C’mon, we’re going to go tell Daddy and together we’re going to think about what happens next.”

“Happens?” Piper questioned, clearly not understanding she was about to be disciplined in some way that Rose had yet to decide upon. “Next?”

“Yep.” They reached the stroller, and Rose strapped Piper in, not giving her an option this time. Catching on that an unknown harsher sentence was coming, Piper didn’t complain, hoping Mummy would forget all about it.

No such luck.

They spread out the picnic blanket on a grassy hill that was scattered with other families of all species. The Doctor pulled food out of the basket as Rose unstrapped Piper and set her firmly on her lap.

“Sandwiches for all, and plenty of fruit,” the Doctor announced, handing Rose a bag of small, round alien grapes (sort of) to feed their daughter.

“Ooo, let’s have some of these, shall we?” Rose offered, plucking one from the bag. Piper took it and contemplated the grape before licking it. Rose giggled. “No, you eat it. Like this.”

She demonstrated as Piper watched. The Doctor showed off by popping one high in the air and catching it in his mouth, to the applause of his favorite girls.

He pulled one last trio of food items out of the basket. “Lovely! Cookies for everyone!”

Suddenly, Rose knew how she could get away with punishing Piper without causing a scene.

“Cookies are going to be saved for after we’re back home,” she announced. “Piper would have gotten her cookie now, but she disobeyed Mummy earlier, didn’t she?”

Piper’s eyes widened as she understood what was happening. She looked over to her father, whose eyebrows were raised, waiting for the full story. She contemplated a tantrum, but honestly didn’t know if she had the energy left in her after all she had been through today, plus that had absolutely never worked with Mummy before. Not that it stopped her always, but in this case, it seemed cuteness overload and the pouty lip were the best bet.

She overestimated her power, however, or at least, underestimated her opponent. Daddy was quite susceptible to such devices, but Mummy just sent her a look that said “Nice try, kid.”

“Piper run away,” she explained to her father. “Ouchy pumpkin.”

Rose tried very hard not to laugh at the memory of the toddler colliding with the pumpkin and bouncing on her nappy-padded bum onto the grass.

“Yes, you were very naughty, Piper,” Rose filled in. “I told you to stay close and not run away and you didn’t listen, so you have to wait to eat your cookie.”

“Piper sorry!” the two-year-old’s exclamation didn’t move her mother’s resolve, however. She realized she was working on the wrong parent. There was only one hope for her now. She pushed herself up and ran into her daddy so that he embraced her on reflex.

“Oof.” The Doctor dropped his sandwich and pulled her into his lap. “What’s this about disobeying Mummy, huh? Did you wander off even though you were told not to? Even though it’s _Rule Number One_?”

He glanced up at Rose, eyes sparkling with humor he didn’t dare let out. Rose rolled her eyes but returned his secret smile.   _Shut up_ , she mouthed to him. He only winked in return.

Their moment was interrupted by a boy of about eight or nine.

“’scuse me,” he began, attention on the ground when Rose, the Doctor, and Piper all turned with interest to their visitor. “My da’ says I hafta apologize. I didn’ realize you were under tha tree I was climbin’ with me mates. I’m sorry if it caused you any harm.” The boy looked up, reveling green eyes rimmed with blue eyelids.

“It’s alright,” Rose forgave him. “Thank you for saying so. Just be more careful next time, yeah?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The boy dipped his head and scurried back to his family.

Piper watched him go and turned back to her daddy, looking up at him with her cutest babyface. “Sorry any harm. Piper apola-gize.”

Rose interjected before the Doctor handed her all of their cookies. “Thank you, sweetheart. Still no cookie until later, but how about we go look at the pumpkins all together as a family?”

“Maybe we’ll even take one home,” the Doctor suggested. “There’s a whole pumpkin patch to choose from.”

Rose sent him a “don’t you remember this morning?” look, and they silently decided to let Piper think the pile she had collided with earlier _was_ the entire pumpkin patch.

She was delighted, regardless.

They ended up with three pumpkins, at Piper’s insistence: a tall thin one, a shorter fuller one, and a small baby one. They all three had bumps and blemishes and rough spots, but they were perfectly imperfect. Together.


End file.
